The Price of Flesh"
Music: "Saturn" – Sleeping At Last (instrumental version)
---
Kyrell's body was cold against Lucian's. Too cold.
Lucian sank to the floor with him, arms tight, hands trembling where they gripped too hard at damp, torn clothing. His mind reeled — not from fear, but from a surge of impossible relief. Kyrell was real. Not a dream. Not a shadow.
He was here.
But he was dying.
Lucian pressed a palm to Kyrell's chest. His heartbeat was faint. Sluggish. His blood smelled wrong — distant, poisoned by frost, hunger, and something else Lucian couldn't name.
"Mara!" Lucian bellowed, his voice echoing through the walls.
He didn't care what she thought. Let the whole estate know. Let the damned council hear it in their stone towers. He would tear down the world before letting this boy disappear again.
Kyrell's lashes fluttered. "I… I didn't know where else to go."
Lucian cupped his face, smoothing damp curls back, his thumb lingering on the fevered cheekbone. "You found the only place that matters."
"You saved me," Kyrell murmured, voice rasping like wind over ash. "Back then. I saw you… I remembered the forest, the light on your face."
Lucian's chest tightened. He didn't speak.
"You weren't supposed to be real," Kyrell whispered. "But you are. And now everything's wrong."
Lucian studied him, voice low. "What happened to you, Kyrell?"
But Kyrell only looked away.
Just then, Mara burst into the room, cloak half-fastened, panic on her face — until she saw who lay in Lucian's arms.
She stopped.
Dead still.
Lucian didn't look up. "Get warm water. Towels. Now."
Mara didn't argue. She vanished like smoke.
---
Later, as Kyrell slept — his body half-wrapped in fur, skin beginning to regain color — Lucian stood over him, arms folded, heart pacing like a beast in a cage.
He didn't just look like prey.
He looked like something hunted.
Lucian could smell it now. Beneath the frost, beneath the near-starvation and dried blood. There was silver in Kyrell's bloodstream. Residue. Traps, maybe. Chains. Something done to him that should never be done to anyone.
And yet… Kyrell had returned to him.
Even when he should've run.
Lucian leaned in close, his voice barely a breath. "Who's hunting you now, Kyrell? Is it still me… or someone worse?"
Kyrell stirred, lips parting.
Then a name escaped like the cracking of ice:
"Damien…"
Lucian stilled.
The blood in his veins hissed.